Edinburgh Triathlon – 400m swim, 11.5 mile bike ride, 3.5 mile run 1.52.29 total
swim – 11.27 mins
T1 – 4.08 mins
bike – 1.01.40
run – 35.12 mins (bike and run include T2 as could not manage to maneouvre bike and press watch!)
I was terrified before this started as I had not had much training and was feeling the pressure of it being my first one and not really knowing what I was doing. Had to back to the car 2 or 3 times as I kept thinking of other things I wanted or changing my mind on things, even down to the trauma of what to wear for the swim!
I was going off in heat 5, at 1.05pm and the heats started at half twelve so I thought I might have misjudged my swim time as it was slowest swimmers first, after the elites. However there were still several heats after me and I certainly would have found the previous heats too slow as I got to watch them before I started, in my fetching green swimming cap, which was the colour for my heat!
I really surprised and pleased with myself with the swim as my previous best was 11.53 and I had had no practice in a 50m pool so thought that would slow me down. You go along each lane from one end of the pool to the other and I found that helpful in terms of feeling like you were going somewhere but I found the swimming under ropes time consuming. I knew I was swimming well but still thought I was slow and I found the breathing hard as I was trying to be quick. As in training I did a length of front crawl and then a length of breaststroke.
I spent longer in transition after the pool than I thought I would but as it was January I wanted to make sure I was drier than I would maybe bother with at other times. I left, as many people did, socks, shoes and 3/4 length leggings along with a towel at the poolside to change inside. This is not normally allowed but as it is January they are kind to you. I did not want to do the longish run outside to the bikes in bare feet in January! I added two tops, gloves and my helmet outside.
I found the bike ride the hardest, it was three times up and around some of Arthur’s Seat. The uphill was hard, although I did overtake people (and also got overtaken) and it was surviveable but I was too chicken to let go on the downhill as it was very steep and quite narrow and I got overtaken lots on that part. It was also cold when you came off the downhill and on the flat before going uphill again. My feet got freezing and I knew that would be hard when I started running. Pacepusher and my mum and dad were there to watch and that was good as doing the laps meant I saw them lots. My mum has cracking photos but I have not got them yet!
I was quick on the second transition but did not manage to do my watch. The official results will show it though. The run might be my slowest 3.5 miles ever. At first I thought my calves muscles were going to rip in two, I had been expecting it on my quads but that didn’t happen. When my calves calmed down it was just basic tiredness in my legs really but I was also starving by this point! The hill was really hard but I ran it all and overtook quite a few people, some of whom were walking up the hill. The downhill seemed to take forever to come though – I may well have run down it quicker than I cycled down it! I even managed to overtake 2 people in the last 50-100metres. I averaged about 10m/m pace for the run but it did not feel like I was going that slowly. I would have been a lot slower on the uphill and quicker on the downhill.
I enjoyed the different challenge and will definitely be signing up for the Stirling uni sprint triathlon (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run). I will even try and do some proper training this time! And here’s a surprise (not!). Pacepusher has now decided he wants to do it too, despite stating on his blog that he would never do one. I knew that would happen!
